A nitrocarburising and low-temperature chromising duplex surface treatment

A duplex surface treatment has been developed involving the pre-treatment of hardened and tempered AISI H13 chromium hot-work tool steel by a ferritic nitrocarburising process, and a subsequent treatment of the nitrocarburised surface by a low-temperature chromium thermo-reactive deposition process.  The process formed a thin and hard chromium carbonitride surface layer above a hardened diffusion zone, and the low processing temperature allowed the properties of the core material to be retained. It is expected this surface treatment will find application in the treatment  of tooling used for aluminium forming operations.

Nitrocarburising and low-temperature chromising duplex surface treatment

A new duplex surface engineering process has been developed that involves the deposition of chromium on ferritic nitrocarburised steel surfaces at low temperatures. This process formed a thin and hard chromium carbonitride surface layer and is to be applied to hardened tooling used in metal forming operations for improved wear performance and die life.

Achieving a chromium rich surface upon steels via FBR-CVD chromising treatments

Surface alloying via fluidised bed reactor (FBR) chemical vapour deposition (CVD) can be used to produce adherent and highly corrosion resistant surface layers. In this work, 304, 316, and 409 stainless steels and 1020 steel were chromised, producing distinct surface layers tens of micrometres thick. The composition and surface of these layers was characterised using microscopy, GDOES, and XPS. Surfaces were highly enriched in Cr and displayed improved corrosion resistance as determined by electrochemical evaluations. This work demonstrates that it is possible to form continuous, functional and corrosion resistant Cr-rich surface layers via FBR-CVD on a variety of steels.

Surface alloying of metals using fluid bed reactor

The use of fluidised bed reactors for surface alloying is reviewed. Research at Deakin has includes the use of chemical vapour deposition to form chromium rich layers on ferrous substrates, including stainless and tool steel grades. These layers can be modified to carbide or nitride if required by the end application. The deposition of aluminium and silicon has also been successfully achieved.

Wear and corrosion resistance of pack chromised carbon steel

Pack chromising treatment is an environmentally friendly alternative to hard chromium to form wear and corrosion resistant surface layers. In this work, samples of AISI 1060 steel were pack chromised for 6 and 9 h at 1000 and 1050 degrees C using different activator concentrations. Wear tests were performed in dry conditions and corrosion tests in natural sea water for the pack chromised samples and hard chromium. Pack chromising yielded the formation of layers with high chromium concentrations, high hardness and wear resistance. Increasing activator concentration causes no significant change on the morphology and thickness of the layers. The layers produced at 1050 degrees C yielded only a (Cr,Fe)(2)N1-x phase, and those obtained at 1000 degrees C are composed of a carbide mixture with (Cr,Fe)(2)N1-x. The sample treated at 1050 degrees C for 9 h resulted in an optimum condition by means of better wear resistance and corrosion properties, which were close to that exhibited by the hard chrome, indicating that pack chromising is a promising alternative.